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Shōko Nakagawa
Shōko Nakagawa (中川 翔子; born Shiyōko Nakagawa (中川 しようこ) on May 5, 1985, in Tokyo), also referred to as Shokotan or Shokotasu, is a Japanese gravure idol, pop singer, actress, voice actress, and illustrator. She is represented by the Watanabe Entertainment talent agency, and voiced the Oracle Fish in Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods. Biography Shōko Nakagawa is the daughter of the late Katsuhiko Nakagawa, a celebrity in Japan in the 1980s once called the Japanese David Bowie. Her father was a big influence on her life. When she was five, she was given horror manga by her father to read, his reason being that she could not become an adult without reading them. As a result of her father's influences, Nakagawa loves 80s idol music, anime, and old video games. When she was younger, she wanted to become a manga artist. Her father died in 1994, while she was nine, and she was raised in Nakano by her mother. After watching Mirai Sentai Timeranger, Nakagawa wanted to become a gravure idol, like Mika Katsumura who played Yuri/Time Pink in the series. Nakagawa studied all of these to prepare for her own debut as a gravure idol. She made her entertainment debut in 2001, winning the Grand Prix award at the Popolo Girl Audition,"The Otaku Encyclopedia: An Insider's Guide to the Subculture of Cool Japan", Patrick W. Galbraith, Kodansha International, 2009 and representing the Jackie Chan talent agency. In 2002, she was chosen as Miss Shōnen Magazine. She was chosen as one of the winners of Miss Magazine 2002, which helped to boost her popularity some. In 2004, Shōko Nakagawa got to be in the show Men B with her idol Mika Katsumura. Nakagawa loves to draw, and many of her illustrations are available at her talent agency's profile website. Shōko Nakagawa is also a huge fan of Bruce Lee and kung fu movies in general, even owning a pair of pink nunchucks. Nakagawa mastered Cantonese and would visit Hong Kong with her mother frequently, and even got to meet Jackie Chan by chance during one of these visits. She drew an illustration of him; this drawing now hangs in Chan's Hong Kong office. She appeared in a brief section of "Kangaeru Hito" (lit. "People who think") on the Fuji TV network in 2004 and showed her ability as an illustrator; this won her a regular place on the later version of the programme which started with minor changes in early 2005, "Kangaeru Hitokoma" (lit."Thinking about one frame"). She cosplays frequently, and has sold many of her costumes at auctions. These outfits include mainly Evangelion, Sailormoon, and Final Fantasy. Because of her love for cosplay, she has gained more fans who love to see her cosplay shoots. Nakagawa generally cosplays alone, but occasionally she cosplays with fellow idols Ayaka Ito and Chiaki Kyan. When they cosplay together, they wear outfits according to their hair. For example, if Nakagawa is Tsukino Usagi from Sailormoon, Ito will be Mizuno Ami because of her shorter hair. For the anime Futari wa Pretty Cure, Nakagawa plays Honoka and Ito is Nagisa. She owns a store, called MMTS (for MaMiTaSu), on Shibuya and she model for some of the clothes. Nakagawa began keeping a public blog in 2004. April 2005 marked her 600th entry, and Nakagawa blogged 70 times in the month of January 2006 alone. This is a national record for an idol blog. Kaori Manabe was once called the "Blog Queen" because of her own constant writing, but with this new record Nakagawa stole the title. Nakagawa's entries began to get published in September 2005 in the book Shokotan Blog. On April 21, 2006, Nakagawa's blog broke 100 million hits. She is becoming known among non-Japanese communities for her many pictures of her acting like she bites her cat Mamitas. She was the presenter of "Pokémon Sunday" on TV Tokyo (2004-2010). For one year starting in May 2005, she appeared as a regular on the TBS programme "Ōsama no Brunch", which made her well-known among the general public. On July 5, 2006, Nakagawa released her first non-anime character single, "Brilliant Dream". It entered the Oricon chart at number 29, with initial sales of 6313 copies. Also in 2006, she began the webseries Shokotan Quest. She also became part of the illustrating group Jump Damashii. In 2007, Sanrio collaborated with Nakagawa to make phone straps of Hello Kitty as Nakagawa holding Mamitas and of Hello Kitty holding a small Nakagawa doll. She released her own version of "Romantic Ageru Yo" in 2007, and her own versions of "Detekoi Tobikiri Zenkai Power!" and "Dan Dan Kokoro Hikareteku" in 2010. She held her first Asian tour in 2012. She voiced Hiromi and Suzuna in Eyeshield 21, Neko in Hakaba Kitarō, Luna=Mi=Mad・Magura in Level E, Aude in Pokémon: Black - Victini and Reshiram, Keldeo in Pokémon: Kyurem VS. The Sword of Justice, Sed in Pokémon: White - Victini and Zekrom, Proof in Pokémon Zoroark: Master of Illusions, Notched-Ear Pichu in Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life, Infy in Pokémon: Giratina & The Sky Warrior, Maki in Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai, and Athena/Saori Kido in Saint Seiya Omega. She performed insert songs for Eyeshield 21, the opening themes of Gurren Lagann, Occult Academy and Yoshimune, opening and ending of Folktales from Japan, the ending of Hakaba Kitarō, the second ending theme of Beelzebub, the fifth ending theme of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, as well as theme songs for Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl, Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life, and Saint Seiya Omega. She also voiced Sharon Da Silva/Dark Alessa in the Japanese dub of the Silent Hill live-action movie (2006), and Rapunzel in the Japanese dub of Tangled (2010). She voiced the Oracle Fish in the 2013 movie Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and 2015 movie Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection ‘F’. Gallery References External links *Shōko Nakagawa's official website (Japanese) *Shoko Nakagawa's biography (English) *Shōko Nakagawa, at generasia.com (English) *Shōko Nakagawa's work, at animenewsnetwork.com (English) Category:Japanese voice actors Category:Real people